Shake Your Skeleton (Camren)

Chapter 2

"I'm home," Lauren called out, pushing through the front door and slipping off her shoes.

"In the kitchen, honey," Lauren heard her mom's voice respond. Striding into the small familiar kitchen, the brunette tossed her backpack by the stairs before silently joining her mom in making supper.

The two worked effortlessly into a wordless synchronization, shuffling within the small area and around each other with ease. However, Lauren could tell her mother wanted to say something, and she had a feeling she knew what.

"So how come I got a call from the school saying you skipped your last two classes?"

Clara, her mom, asked after a few seconds. Yep, there it was. Lauren bit her lip, shrugging nonchalantly.

"It's nothing," Lauren brushed the question off, not wanting to tell her mom about the bullies that had chased her off the school grounds, or the ghost that she had met because of the incident.

Clara glanced up at her daughter with concern and disappointment.

"This can't become a habit, it's the third time this month," she said, pausing in her vegetable slicing.

"It's nothing," the brunette said again, staring intently at the stew she was stirring. "I'm working on it."

Clara pursed her lips, choosing to let the subject drop for now as she threw the celery into the pot.

A few moments of silence passed before the older woman decided to address a different issue. "Your dad phoned for you again."

Lauren stiffened slightly before she hummed dismissively, grabbing the salt shaker.

"Honey, you can't shut him out forever just because things between us didn't wor-"

"It's not just that, mom," Lauren said with a hint of force, her hand tightening around the spoon she was holding. "It's a lot of other things too okay? It goes beyond the divorce."

There was a tense silence, and Clara looked at her daughter in concern and confusion. Lauren set her jaw at this, ducking her head and narrowing her eyes. Her mom didn't know what had happened between father and daughter to destroy their relationship, as neither one of them had been willing to share. And Lauren wasn't about to share now.

As a teacher at Carrollton High, Michael, her dad, had seen Lauren's everyday struggles at school. But unlike most fathers, he turned a blind eye to everything happening to his daughter, choosing to ignore the issues as if they weren't happening at all instead of putting a stop to them as a teacher or father should. One incident stuck out painfully in her brain, shooting through her mind every time her dad was ever mentioned.

It had been a regular school day, a few years ago, and her dad had been on supervision at lunch hour. He had been walking along the school grounds casually, hands in his pockets and head held high, but when he rounded the corner of the school he was just in time to see Drew Chadwick and his goons menacingly attack Lauren, throwing tormenting insults and violent punches. It was the first time her tormentors had physically attacked her, and all she could do was desperately scream and cry, hoping someone would stop them. Through the violence, Lauren's eyes had caught sight of her dad, and relief flooded over her knowing he would stop the assault. She distinctly remembered how she had called out to him, voice raw with pain and emotion as she begged him to help her. His observing eyes had locked with her terror-filled ones, and she knew, she just knew he would save her, just like fathers were supposed to. However, to her complete surprise and devastation she watched as hebturned his head away like he had seen nothing, casually walked back around the corner and leaving Lauren to the ruthless bullies that plagued her.